Bustle



UNITED STATES PATENT EErcE.

FREDERICK J. BRAND, OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT.

BUSTLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 384,557, dated June 12, 1888.

Application filed October-31, 1887. Serial No. 253,832. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FREDERroK J. BRAND, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Britain, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bustles, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in bustles; and the objects of my improvement are simplicity and economy in the construe tion and general efficiency of the article.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of my bustle. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the bottom bow. Fig. at is an enlarged side elevation of the connected ends of the bows. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of my bustiewith some modifications, and Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the same.

A designates the main or front bow, terminating at each end in a single coil or eye, a, upon which the other bows are mounted. At the upper part of the bow two coils or eyes, b b, are bent in the wire which forms the bow,

2 5 the ordinary belt or band, B, for securing the bustle to the wearer, being attached thereto. The other bows, C D, have smaller coils, c, at their ends, which coils are bent around the wire at the terminal coils a of the main bow, as shown, thereby connecting all of the bows at their ends by a compact simple joint whose axis is common to all of the bows, so that they may be folded up close together or more widely separated from each other, as shown in the drawings. The bottom bow, D, I provide with a small offset or offsets, d, at which point I secure stay-straps f, the upper ends of which straps in the form shown in Figs. 1 and 2 are secured to a similar offset in the main bow, and in the form shown in Figs. 5 and 6 they are secured to the main bow at the coils or eyes I). By means of these offsets, which are formed at a trifling cost, in the bottom how the stay-straps are prevented from working laterally out of place.

In order to retain the bows' in their expanded form, I provide springs g, the same consisting of one or more coils with tangential, arms bent at their outer ends into a loop or coil, h, embracing the front and bottom bows, A B, and pressing upon them with a tendency to hold the bows in their expanded form.

E designates the adjusting-cord spanning the ends of the bows for drawing them up when desired to contract the width of the bustle. This cord may pass through the coils of the spring 9 and the coils a of the main bow, and thereby retain the spring in proper position; or, if desired, the springs may be held in place by separate ties.

In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 I have represented all but the main bow as corrugated, so as to form them into a series of rounded projections with intervening spaces, as shown most clearly in Fig. 3, thereby enabling the dress-skirt of the wearer when draped in folds to better pre serve its form.

The modification shown in Figs. 5 and 6 differs from this construction in having the bows plain; but the general construction of the bustle is the same.

It is customary in bustles to provide a covering which extends over all the bows, and I intend to make my bustles both with and without such covering. Such covering being old, I deem it unnecessary to illustrate the same. When such covering is used, the stays f may be omitted, the covering acting as a stay to prevent undue expansion of the bustle.

I am aware that it is old to construct a bustle of a series of connected bows adapted to expand and contract by moving the bows to and from each other. It is also old to expand the bows of such bustle by means of springs.

It is also old to form on the main one of a series of connected wire bows two or more coils near the joint or joints, with both ends of the wire of which said bow is formed extending beyond said coils to other parts, andto connect other bows by coils or eyes to the coils of said main bow. All of said prior art is hereby disclaimed.

I claim as my invention- 1. A bustle consisting of a series of connected bows, having the bows which give form to the clothing corrugated by a series of opposing bends of long and short curves, and

forming the series of rounded projections with intervening spaces, substantially as described, and for the purpose specified.

2. In a bustle, the combination of a series 5 of wire bows connected at their ends by coils the wire of which the bows A D are formed, substantially as described, and for the purpose specified.

FREDERICK J, BRAND.

Witnesses: and the separately-formed springs having J OIIN EDWARDS, J r. the loops or coils h of their arms encircling J0. DEMING. 

